— Jio has made India the number 1 data-consuming country in the world
— It will soon cover 99% of India’s population with 4G displacing 2G as biggest coverage
— Introducing the JioPhone which will offer free data calls and unlimited data @ Rs 153 a month

12:13 (IST)

Jio will democratise digital culture in India

"Digital life will no longer be the privilege of the affluent few. Reliance democratised the equity culture in the past. Now, Jio will democratise the digital culture in India. JioPhone to be available for user testing from August 15. The target is to have 5 million JioPhones available every week," says Mukesh Ambani.

#RILat40I want to publicly thank all Jio employees and applaud their contribution to our company, and our nation: Mukesh Ambani

Shares of Reliance Industries off the highs. At 12.07 pm, the stock on the BSE was at 1563 up 2 percent. Earlier the stock was up nearly 4 percent. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel shares were down 3.5 percent and Idea Cellular 5.8 percent.

12:06 (IST)

JioPhone to be physically available from September 2017

"JioPhone to be physically available from September 2017 to those who have pre-booked it. JioPhone pre-booking to be open from 24 August. Digital life will no longer be the privilege of the affluent few. Reliance democratised the equity culture in the past. Now, Jio will democratise the digital culture in India. JioPhone to be available for user testing from August 15. The target is to have 5 million JioPhones available every week," says Ambani.

12:04 (IST)

#RILat40Today, I am delighted to announce that JioPhone will be available to all Indians for an effective price of – Rs 0: Mukesh Ambani

Data: “Starting 15 August, I am declaring digital freedom for all feature phone users.“, says Ambani. Such users will have access to unlimited data.
The above will be provided to users at just Rs 153 per month.

Jio engineers have created a ‘Jio Phone TV cable’ that will let any Jio feature phone connect to any TV. The best part is that the connector is compatible even with old, CRT TVs. “All Jio Phone users can enjoy viewing Jio Phone content on the big screen.” says Ambani.

12:00 (IST)

JioPhone specs

The Jio phone will automatically send a distress message to your emergency contacts when you press and hold the ‘5’ button. This feature phone will even send your location. Integration with local police services and other emergency services will be arriving soon.

NFC support is coming to the Jio phone as well. This opens up options for NFC payments and digital transactions. You can link UPI, JanDhan accounts, etc. to the phone. The feature will be enabled via a future software update.

11:53 (IST)

JioPhone supports voice input

The Jio phone supports voice input. It might very well be the first feature phone to do so. The phone's voice input algorithm can also parse commands in Hindi.

All of Jio’s top applications will be present on the phone. This include Jio Music, Jio Cinema, etc. A simple voice command like “JioMusic pe Vande Mataram sunao” is enough to trigger the app and music playback.

Akash Ambani played one of the editions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mann ki Baat radio address via voice command. Vande Mataram echoed as Akash Ambani played AR Rahman’s rendering of the song on the Jio phone. Next up was the trailer of blockbuster Baahubali 2.

The Jio phone is claimed to be the most intelligent and affordable feature phone in the whole world. It’s a 100 percent 4G LTE phone and supports all of India's 22 different languages.

The Jio phone supports voice input. It might very well be the first feature phone to do so. The phone’s voice input algorithm can also parse commands in Hindi.

All of Jio’s top applications will be present on the phone. This include Jio Music, Jio Cinema, etc. A simple voice command like “JioMusic pe Vande Mataram sunao” is enough to trigger the app and music playback.

"Entry-level smartphones cost between Rs 3,000-4,500. I had challenged young engineers at Jio to find a solution to this cost. And now let me introduce India ka smartphone, Jio phone device. Reliance Jio is expanding physical distribution network and will have 10,000 Jio offices by September. We will integrate Jio with all major e-commerce platforms. In the next 12 months, Jio will cover 99% of the population. Inda’s 4G coverage will be more than India’s 2G coverage. Jio has created a larger 4G network in just three years as compared to 25 years that competitors took to develop 2G," says Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.

"In simple terms, this means that your money has doubled every 2.5 years in the past 40 years."

11:14 (IST)

Mukesh Ambani starts speech, says no other co expanded as fast

Mukesh Ambani starts speech. He says how the company expanded in the last 40 years.

"The increase in our turnover is 4700 times in the last 40 years. The increase in net profit in the last 40 years is nearly 10,000 times.

10:59 (IST)

RIL shares rise 3%; Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular down around 2%

Ahead of the AGM, the shares of Reliance Industries on the BSE were up 3 percent. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were down about 2 percent

On Thursday, the company reported its highest quarterly consolidated net profit of Rs 9,108 crore in three-months to 30 June on the back of higher petrochemical margins and one-time gain from sale of African asset.

Net profit in the April-June quarter at Rs 9,108 crore (Rs 30.8 per share) was 28 percent higher than Rs 7,113 crore (Rs 24.1 a share) in the same period of the last financial year, RIL said in a statement.

"Strong refining and petrochemicals margin environment contributed to higher operating profits for the quarter," it said. Read the report here.

The shares are also reacting to this news.

10:32 (IST)

Reliance Jio leads in subscriber addition in May too, says Trai data

As per the latest data available from Trai, Reliance Jio continued to lead the growth momentum with net addition of 4.8 million new customers during the month. The companny accounted for about 75 percent of overall net subscriber addition in the mobile services segment.

Earlier this month, Trai data showed that Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular saw their market shares shrinking in 2016, giving way to Reliance Jio that ended the year with 6.4 per cent market share.

10:26 (IST)

Reliance Jio 'all set to unfold new chapter', says tweet, expectations build up

Ahead of Reliance Industries' annual general meeting, the expectations of a few major announcements in the telecom space are building up.

The AGM is about to start at 11 am at Birla Matushri Sabhagar in Mumbai.

On Thursday, Reliance Jio, the company's telecom subsidiary, indicated in a tweet the company is set to unfold a new chapter.

Later in the day, Reliance Industries announced that Jio will raise Rs 20,000 crore through a rights issue to meet the funding requirements.

Private sector conglomerate Reliance Industries' much-awaited annual general meeting is about to start today, with analysts expecting a few announcements by chairman Mukesh Ambani.

In a recent note, after Reliance Jio announced the new plans, brokerage CLSA hadd said that the AGM on 21 July is the next key event to watch out for as it may provide more clarity on new legs to Jio's growth, i.e, broadband and 4G feature phones.

Reuters

Clearly, the focus is going to be on Reliance Jio.

The company on Thursday said Reliance Jio will raise Rs 20,000 crore through a rights issue to meet funding requirements.

"The Board of Directors at its meeting held on July 20, 2017 has decided to make a rights issue of four billion - nine per cent non-cumulative optionally convertible preference shares (OCPS) of Rs 10 each for cash, at a premium of Rs 40 per OCPS, aggregating Rs 20,000 crore," Reliance Jio Infocomm said in a regulatory filing.

The Mukesh Ambani-led firm launched 4G services commercially on 5 September 2016 with free data and voice offerings, and signed up the first 50 million subscribers in just 83 days.

The company started charging for mobile services from 1 April but continues to offer disruptive data rates and free voice calls.

Earlier this month, Jio rolled out new plans after its Dhan Dhana Dhan offer -- launched on April 11 -- reached the maximum allowed 90-day period.

It has lowered validity and data on a revamped Rs 309 plan, but is dishing out a bumper 84GB for Rs 399. Jio had over 112 million users at the end of April 2017.